Lily Potter and the Ancestral Struggle
by XB16B2
Summary: AU: A train ride, a Wizarding Wireless, an unconventional Sorting, and that's all it takes to throw the Post-War Generation into a minor flavour of havoc! R & R, por favor.
1. Meet the Family

"Harry, think about it," Hermione Granger snapped, pushing her now-graying, still bushy, hair back from her face with one hand, the other gripping a mug of tea. Sitting in two plump crimson armchairs across from her, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley swapped wry glances. Time had taken its toll on Harry and Ron as well; Harry's hair and beard were starting to get a very salt-and-pepper look to them, while Ron was going bald, slowly but surely. "If you don't send Lily to Hogwarts, where will she go? Durmstrang?" Hermione snorted with derision. 

"It's dangerous," Ginny objected, feet drawn up beside her on the couch and shooting an annoyed look at Hermione. "the Death Eaters are still around, and—"

"Death Eaters? Oh, please. Beyond that little cult in northern Ireland three years ago? When was the last time we heard from them?"

"Goyle's son, you know, Bradley, he's going into his second year now."

The men sat there silently. They had long since learned to wait their wives out and interject their own opinions later. No matter how much Hermione and Ginny squabbled, interruptions at this point were only likely to turn them both against the interuptee. 

The topic of their discussion, one Lily Minerva Potter, pressed an ear against the sitting room door of Number 12 Grimmauld Place and made a discontented face. She knew very well that her parents, aunt, and uncle were debating her schooling. She also firmly objected to the debate. Just because her mum was paranoid about a few wackos who still blamed her da for the downfall of one of the greatest Dark wizards to ever try to take over the wizarding world didn't mean that Lily should suffer for it. She wanted to go to Hogwarts, learn about magic, and meet real people. It wasn't fair for her to be cooped up in Grimmauld Place all the time.

"LILY!" boomed a voice from the top of the staircase. Jumping, the girl shied away from the door and looked up to see who was calling her. Lily realized who it was and bolted up the stairs. There, she socked Albus Hagrid in the stomach, the only bit of him she could really reach. Even though Al was mostly giant, he was still only twelve feet tall, mostly giant, and still (or so his father claimed) growing. Al was sixteen to Lily's eleven, but had been around the house for as long as she could remember. There was still a lot of prejudice going around the wizarding world against part-humans such as giants, werewolves, and mermaids, even though there had been a lot of work put into stopping it since the War ended.

That was why they were debating letting her go to Hogwarts, why Al was always around, why Tonks lived in one of the spare rooms. It all came down to The War. Even though it had been done long before Lily, Al, or any of the other had been born. They were Children Of War Heroes and Had To Be Treated Appropriately. 

Gnome turds, was what Lily said of that. The War was over, it was done with, and it shouldn't be messing with her life. She was not her father, she was not her mother, and her parents had been impractical, sentimental fools when they had named their children.

"Has everyone Flooed in yet?" Lily asked, a bit impatiently. She had inherited the Evans eyes—green as a fresh pickled toad, her mum said when she teased her da. He always blushed peculiarly too. But that was one of the stories she never heard about her parents' days in school. She never heard any of the day-to-day stories. Only the really well-known ones. After so many years of being hero-worshipped, Lily supposed that they had learned that people didn't particularly care about reminiscing. It had never occurred to them, of course, that a tale of the first time her da had kissed her mum might be more interesting than hearing about How Harry Potter Defeated Lord Voldemort For the Second Time or The Treachery Of Severus Snape. It was history, and they didn't seem to get that. Lily could ask anyone on the street to tell her about the D.A. or how her father had set Voldemort back long enough to prepare to defeat him soundly, but she only had a few people who could tell her how things were at school Back Then.

Oddly enough, there was one 'adventure' she never heard. That anyone ever heard, to her knowledge. Nobody really knew what happened that day that Voldemort went down for good.

"Yeah," Al said. His voice cracked as he did so, and Lily laughed. Al blushed and tugged at his budding whiskers. He was so proud of his whiskers, really. He claimed that they made him look like his da. But with neatly cut and combed hair and the pathetic attempt at whiskers on his chin and upper lip, Al didn't resembled his wild-maned father all that much. 

The pair quietly tiptoed past Nymphadora Tonks's room, then made it up another flight of stairs to the one disused room in the house. Disused and never touched, not since the day Sirius Black died. Lily's father had always been peculiar about this room. He rarely came up here, but the one time Kreacher (who was still around, even though he was ancient, doubled over with arthritis, and never stopped whining about 'Mudbloods and blood traitors, the whole lot of them') had dared touch anything in the room, he had been livid. For some reason, though, her father didn't mind when the 'children' went up there.

That was the one time Lily had ever been truly afraid of her father. The one time she could see something in him that might, might have, one day, long ago, fought Lord Voldemort was in protection over this room. 

It was dusty. A bucket sat in one corner with rat bones in it. On top of the dresser was an old, silver mirror. In the centre of the room sat four other kids of varying ages. The youngest was Lily's brother, RJ. Full name? Remus James Potter. He was nine, going on ten, as he proudly pointed out to anyone who made the mistake of asking. RJ sat on the lap of one of his twin cousins. Twins ran in the Weasley family, it seemed, and though Fred and George had no (known) children, their penchant for mischief seemed to have been passed on to the next generation in Katie Angelina (Angie) and Viktor Seamus (Vik), both of whom were twelve, a year older than Lily, and already begun their Hogwarts career. Susan Luna Longbottom (Sanna) sprawled across the floor, her long braid lying like a snake across the floor. 

A motley crew, but with three main things in common. They all had parents who had been in The War, they were all named (embarrassingly) for those who had died in The War, and they were all, save RJ and Lily, Gryffindors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Vik and Angie had both inherited the Weasley red hair and freckles, although the hair was more bushy than could have been expected. Vik kept his hair cut as short as possible to keep the bushiness of his hair hidden. Angie also kept her hair short, in a boy cut, although she tamed it with massive amounts of magical hair care products. Although she was only twelve, she spent enough time in the bathroom each morning to make anyone completely mad. 

The older children were far more calm than the twins. Al had managed to pull an unhuman amount of patience from somewhere. Where, no one was entirely sure. Maxime, his mother, was the fiery Headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy and his father was the equally hot-tempered groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts. Sanna, at fourteen, had pulled good looks from the same place Al had gotten his temper from, it seemed. She looked a goddess in anything, even tatty old dress robes, and spent far less time on her looks then Angie did. Her thin, smooth face and elegant build that was reminiscent of some sort of graceful bird could not have possibly come from her parents, Neville Longbottom and Sally-Anne Perks, who were quite…plain, to say the least.

"They're talking about Hogwarts. Again," Lily groaned, flopping down on the dusty floor next to Sanna. "You all get to go, why can't I?"

"You're _the daughter of Harry Potter_!" Angie and Vik said, conveying the proper amount of faux awe in their voices to make everyone laugh. It was distinctly odd when the two of them spoke together (although they never finished each others' sentences, thank the gods), but everyone had gotten used to it by now. "You can't possibly be treated like a normal kid," Angie said, popping a Bertie Bott's Bean into her mouth. "I can almost see their point, too. Brad Goyle is a bit of a wart."

"A bit?" Sanna replied, amused. Her voice was lilting and musical "You could say that Binns was a bit boring too, while you're at it."

"Hey, yeah," Vik said, grabbing for the bag of Every Flavour Beans. "Forgot to tell you lot—Turpin's finally taking over History of Magic." His twin smacked him.

"Is Binns still staying on?" Al asked, a bit worriedly. He was probably the only student in at least twenty years who cared about the old ghost and his subject. Even Hermione Granger hadn't been especially keen on it.

"You should know," Sanna replied. "Your dad's on staff, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't talk about it much. Was pretty chuffed over my O.W.L.s, though."

"Hey, how did you do with those?" Lily asked. "Sorry, I forgot."

Al and Sanna looked at her with all the superiority of older students. "Bet you won't be forgetting when they're _your _results," Al remarked mildly. "But thanks for asking. An O in History of Magic and Divination, E's in Arithmancy, Potions, and Herbology, then A's in everything else. Except Muggle Studies, that was a P." The boy frowned. "I just can't understand those Muggle contraptions. Really, the light circuit was what got me, I think."

They would have continued the discussion further, but a yell came from two stories down. "We're leaving in ten minutes! Come _on_!"

RJ and Lily exchanged wincing glances. "Mum," they said, ruefully.

They all stood, brushed the dust off themselves as best as they could, and made short work of the rest of the Every Flavour Beans. It was before noon, and no doubt that all of their parents would fuss if they knew they were eating sweets already. Honestly, it was as though none of them remembered being children properly. Stampeding down the stairs, they assembled in the sitting room where the adults sat. Hagrid, as they all called Al's father, must have been in the kitchen earlier, for he was now in the sitting room. Ginny Potter was still sitting next to Hermione Weasley on the couch and looking miffed. 

At the sight of that, Lily's heart leapt in her chest. If her mum was looking irritable, that could only mean—

"Lily, get yer robes on," Hagrid rumbled. "Yer comin' with us today."

The eleven year old yelped and jumped in the air, racing back up the stairs to her room, although she slowed down again by Tonks's room and passed it quietly. She was going to Hogwarts, just like her parents! This year was going to be positively, absolutely amazing!


	2. Wireless Woes

The trip to Diagon Alley had been fairly uneventful. Sanna and Al had attempted to break off from the group at the sight of some friends from school, but Hagrid had quickly curtailed the attempts, booming about 'privacy' and 'yeh gotta be careful, like, with who yeh go off with'. Al didn't sulk so much as Sanna did, but he withdrew into himself and was very quiet for the rest of the trip.

Lily had never been to Diagon Alley before, or, really, anywhere that public. There was a small toyshop up in Godric's Hollow, but besides that and the annual trip to Hogsmeade for the high-security memorial service for those slain in The War, she hadn't actually been anywhere. She was knowledgeable about different ingredients and spells, and spent a considerable amount of time reading magic books (and sometimes sneaking practise with someone else's wand), but as for the real wizarding world? Lily was almost as in the dark as a Muggleborn for how to act in 'proper society'. 

So far as 'proper society' went, though, she wasn't entirely sure how she fit in. Her mum came from a long line of pureblooded witches and wizards (although the Weasleys had long been exiled as blood traitors), Lily's paternal grandda had been pureblooded too, but her grandmum had been a Muggleborn. What did that make Lily? Kreacher was of the opinion that her ancestry meant 'blood traitor', while stuck-up Samantha Moon, who she had met a few times up in Godric's Hollow, said it meant that she was a 'Mudblood'. 

Worries about blood, reception, and being among her peers for the first time ever were quickly squelched by the overwhelming joy and excitement the girl felt at finally, _finally_ getting her own wand from the finest wandmaker in London. Birch and dragon heartstring, thirteen and three-quarters inches. 

But that had been a week ago, and the children (even RJ) were now packed into a car borrowed from the Ministry of Magic and on their way to Platform 9 ¾ with most of their assorted relatives. 'Most' because Lily's parents and the twins' da were at the Aurory on assignment and Hagrid had Flooed back to Hogwarts (Al and Sanna had an ongoing bet about how, exactly, he managed to Floo at his size) the day before, reluctantly allowing Al to stay the night with the rest. 

"Susan, do you have Trevor?" Neville asked for the umpteenth time. 

"Yes, dad," Sanna replied. The War Generation, as they had taken to calling their parents and those who had gone to school with them, were the only people who called Sanna anything but Sanna. Trevor was the eternally freedom-bound toad that Neville had received from a relative before he started school. The fact that the amphibian was still as alive and active as ever was a testimony to the fact that it was, undoubtedly, magical. Long ago, their parents had tried to make Trevor change his form from toad to human in the belief that he had to be an Animagi of some sort, possibly a Dark wizard. All that had resulted from that experience was Trevor making yet another bid for freedom.

"Katie! Viktor! Did you get rid of those Snackboxes?" the twins' mother glared at them. Fred and George had come visiting the night before, slipping their favorite niece and nephew what they had grandly called a 'Hogwarts Survival Kit'. Lily occasionally felt jealous that the twins got all the attention from everyone. Yes, they were her cousins, but it still wasn't fair. Even when Bill and Fleur came from France, Vik and Angie got all the attention because they were so clever with logic puzzles. 

The twins didn't even look at each other as the nodded yes. The car stopped before a skeptical Hermione could interrogate them further. Everybody piled out of the car and got the luggage trolleys, loading the trunks onto them. It was all comfortable bustle and noise as they reached the appropriate wall and walked on through. 

On the other side, Vik let out a low whistle. The place was positively crawling with all sorts of Magical Law Enforcement. The group had to stop almost immediately to allow a growling crup to sniff their bags and an officer to wave a wand over them all. It beeped shrilly as it passed over the twins. Sullenly, they emptied their pockets of Skiving Snackboxes and other similar prank products. Angie actually pulled what looked like a twenty four hour love potion out of her pocket. The officer shook his head.

"Do you kids have any idea what's in this stuff? Honestly, if we ever catch those Weasleys importing any of these ingredients, they'll be in Azkaban for years…."

RJ, Lily, and the twins exchanged amused looks. Hermione looked positively livid. 

"Right. Bye, Mum," Angie said, kissing her mother briefly on the cheek. Vik did the same, and they made their escape to the train. Sanna also bid farewell to her parents, Lily said goodbye to RJ, and they were off.

For the first time in her life, Lily was free from her parents' stifling influence. 

"There haven't been this many MLEs around since that last dementor scare," Sanna frowned, examining her surroundings as Al helped Lily load her trunk up. "And that was in my first year. I wonder what's up?" 

"Don't know," Al said, musingly.

"Bet it's that Potter girl," Angie teased, coming up behind them. 

"Where's Vik at?" Lily asked. She had never seen the twins separated before. 

"Off with Gawain Thomas," the older girl replied offhandedly, not particularly perturbed that her twin was off doing something without her. "Seriously, Lily, I think it is you. They haven't done this ever—"

"Since my first year," Sanna interjected.

"Since Sanna's first year, right, which would be three years ago. And there haven't been any big scares. The Aurory's basically wiped out all the dementors, we're at peace with the werewolves and giants, the merpeople and centaurs couldn't care less about us unless we're interfering with their territory, and there hasn't been a peep about Death Eaters since that cult in Ireland was broken up."

"But why—"

"Sanna!" An older girl ran up to them and threw her arms around Sanna. Sanna hugged her back.

"Hullo, Gwen!" Sanna beamed, her flushed from all the excitement. "Lily, I'll see you around, okay?" Lily nodded helplessly as Sanna took off in one direction and Al followed. In all the confusion, Angie had left her as well. The girl stood alone on the platform, shoulder length black hair frizzing into her face and green eyes looking around. She had thought that they would stick together at Hogwarts. Yes, Sanna and Al were older, but the twins were almost her age. It wasn't fair!

Lily got onto the train and, failing to find a completely empty compartment, settled for the one with the fewest people; a Black girl and a pale, faded-looking boy. "Er…do you mind if I sit here?" she asked the occupants hesitantly.

"Sure," said the Black girl, moving her bag over. "I'm Brianna."

The boy looked up from beneath a fringe of dirty blond hair. "Hey," he said. "I'm Will."

Lily looked uncomfortably between the two and sat on the edge of the seat. "I'm…Lily," she said, then waited, half defiant and half looking forward to the spark of recognition she knew would come. It had happened before, up in Godric's Hollow, and some in Diagon Alley too. _'Lily? Lily Potter!' _they would say, in hushed, excited tones, looking her up and down almost hungrily. 'the _Lily Potter!'_. Sometimes the person in question would give her sweets or a gift, and sometimes they would just treat her like she was the greatest thing ever to grace their presence, save maybe her parents, aunts, or their friends. 

The recognition didn't come. Will and Brianna nodded politely, then both went back to their respective tasks, Brianna trying to sort out some device that looked like a wireless, and Will reading an old comic entitled Marvin the Mad Muggle. Lily remained uncomfortably on the edge of her seat as the train pulled out of the station, heading towards her new school. The silence was very awkward; she had never heard anything that total. At home there was always some noise. RJ screaming, their parents yelling over something, visitors, or even just Kreacher, hobbling around the house and grousing about his life. Here, there was…nothing. Nobody was talking. The wind whistled around the windows of the train, the compartment rattled a bit, but nobody talked. 

Why hadn't they recognized her? Why didn't they automatically say 'Lily Potter!' and start talking to her? Everyone had before, even stuffy Samantha. That was the only good part of being the Child Of A War Hero. Grown ups didn't tell her to stop talking and stop asking questions (unless they were related to her, which didn't count), and kids usually didn't mind playing with her or keeping her company, even if they were a lot older (except Sanna and Al, who went off by themselves sometimes and didn't want to be bothered, but again, they didn't count).

But now…Lily shifted and reached into her bag for The Standard Book of Spells, Year One and flipped through the pages, looking at all the different spells. She had just begun to lose herself in the summary of the spell 'Aquor', when the wireless on Brianna's lap suddenly let out a garbled stream of static, then burst into a perfectly clear rendition of 'Elixer of Love'. All three children jumped at the sudden sound, Will and Lily both half-dropping their reading material. 

"I've never heard that before," Brianna remarked weakly, recovering from the initial shock. Will and Lily exchanged startled looks. 'Elixer of Love' had been playing on practically every station for the past month, ever since Potion X had released it. 

"Hey, can you get Wandless 101 on that?" Will asked hopefully. Lily barely refrained from making a face. She _hated _W101. It just played the same songs over and over, and it was all really weird stuff too. RJ lived on that station. 

Brianna frowned. "Wandless 101? I've never heard of it…." she offered the wireless to Will, who took it. "You can try, though."

"Wait, you've never heard of W101?" Lily asked, incredulous. Then a possible reason dawned on her. "Oh, are you a Muggleborn?"

Brianna looked at her blankly. 

"Muggleborn," Will jumped in quickly, fiddling with the wireless, "means that your parents aren't magical. I'm a halfblood—means my dad's a wizard and mum's a Muggle. They got divorced, though…it's hard for some people to live in a half-and-half household. She got remarried to an accountant and they're happy now."

"Oh," Brianna said faintly. "Um. Yes, I am."

Lily was spared feeling obliged to comment by the arrival of the trolley witch. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" the witch asked sweetly, smiling down at them from the compartment opening. 

"Yes, thanks," Lily and Brianna jumped up to choose what to buy. The Black girl looked confused and mortified when she realized that there weren't any Muggle sweets there, but quickly recovered herself enough to pick up some Chocolate Frogs and an edible Dark Mark. Lily was satisfied with Cauldron Cake and some Every Flavour Beans. Will continued to fiddle with the wireless. Brianna opened a Chocolate Frog, and the frog inside hopped out, trying to make a break for the door. Lily giggled, diving for it, and missed. 

The compartment door slid open again. Lily looked up from the floor to see Angie and Vik. "We'd wondered where you'd run off to," Vik said casually, seating himself next to Lily as she resumed her seat. "Meeting new friends and all that,"

Lily stuck her tongue out at Vik. He helped himself to some of her Cauldron Cake. Angie quickly snatched the frog where it was lurking by the door and held it up by one leg. "Whose?" she asked the room in general.

Brianna looked about ready to die of humiliation. "Mine," she said quietly. Angie might have said something else, but the wireless chose that point in time to squawk again, filling the air with static.

"Bloody machine," Will grumbled, smacking the wireless with his palm. The static cut off, as though with a knife. The twins looked around the compartment with mild amusement. 

"Right," Angie cut in. "Sanna's lost Trevor again, Lily, thought you ought to know. You'd better change into your proper robes, too. We're not that far away and things get wild near the school. We'll see you at the Feast." With that, Angie waved a farewell to the three of them, Vik stood, bid his farewell with a foppish, affected bow, and was dragged out of the compartment by his twin.

Silence reigned again.

Lily looked down at her Cauldron Cakes, her stomach feeling a bit unsettled. It wasn't as if there was a question as to what House she'd be in, but the thought of being Sorted still unnerved her. She wrapped the cakes up and put them into her bag, next to the Every Flavour Beans. Shortly, Lily Minerva Potter would change into her robes. Soon after that, she would cross the lake to Hogwarts, just as every other first year had done for hundreds of years.

Her adventure, Lily was certain, was only just beginning.


	3. An Unconventional Sorting

"Patil, Jenna,"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Perkins, George,"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Lily shifted irritatedly as she waited for grizzled, old, Mad-Eye Moody to call her name. It was almost her turn to be Sorted. Not that there was any question about which House she would be going into, of course. Beneath the magnificent red and gold banners of Gryffindor. Angie and Vik were miming death by boredom while, further down, Sanna gave her a steady, reassuring look. So maybe Lily was nervous. But only a little bit. Jenna looked like a nice girl, finding a seat at the Gryffindor table among the applause that was customary when new students were Sorted. For some reason, Al wasn't paying much attention to the Sorting. Instead, he was holding a whispered conversation with Sanna's friend. The one they had disappeared with earlier. She was very pretty, Lily thought enviously. Just like Sanna. Lily thought herself very plain. Medium-length black hair, a medium amount of freckles, and of medium proportions (a bit pudgy and not very tall), she looked nothing like Sanna. Even her mother had been pretty at eleven. But not Lily.

"Potter, Lily,"

The Great Hall went silent. Students craned their necks, trying to catch sight of her. Lily turned a bit pink and pretended to be embarrassed. She couldn't hide a small smile at the obvious attention, although she attempted to make it seem nervous. From the gruffly concerned look Mad-Eye gave her (with his good eye, of course. The electric blue one whizzed about madly, never settling on anything.), it seemed to be working. Picking the hat up, Lily seated herself on the stool, took a deep breath, and put it on. The brim landed well under her nose, and Lily saw nothing but blackness, despite the fact that her eyes were open.

"Another Potter?" came a small, dry voice just next to her ear. "My, my, but you certainly have an interesting family." Lily beamed under the hat, but said—or, rather, thought—nothing. "Let's see…now what have we here?" the hat hemmed and hawed a bit, as though pouring over a fascinating article in the Prophet. "Well now, you're never the paradox your father was. A good bit of courage here—and the talent! Simply marvelous. Intelligent too. No, no doubt that you're…SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted the last word.

Lily heard a ringing in her ears and her chest constricted. Blood drained from her face and she sat, gripping the stool tightly with both hands. Not moving. _What do you think you're doing!_ she thought viciously at that hat. _Put me in Gryffindor!_

"Gryffindor?" mused the hat. "Why didn't you say so? I wouldn't have thought you would want to be a Gryffindor. But too late now, I'm afraid. Now be a good girl and take me off."

_Put me in Gryffindor! I'm the daughter of Harry Potter, I should be—_

Two large, tough hands removed the hat from Lily's head and started her towards the green and silver banners that marked the Slytherin table.

"Povick, Brian,"

The entire hall was silent, watching. Lily tried desperately to make eye contact with Angie or Vik, but they were focused intently on Brian Povick's Sorting. Intent on not looking at her. Al was stunned, staring at the Slytherins incredulously. Only Sanna gazed at Lily with unruffled, assuring calm. _Go ahead_, she mouthed silently. Numbly, Lily obeyed her. She found a tentative seat at the very edge of the Slytherin table.

"Hufflepuff!"

A burst of relieved applause came from the Hugglepuff table, breaking the heavy, awkward silence with a nearly audible snap. Some of the students at the other tables applauded too, just to do something. Lily felt the stares. Felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. Felt the hot prickle of approaching tears in her eyes. She wallowed them with nearly tangible effort, dutifully applauding when the new Slytherins were Sorted. Finally, the Sorting was over. Headmistress Sprout made a speech, glancing oddly at Lily the whole time. Mercifully, the food appeared shortly after, students taking the chance to begin eating and catch up on what had happened over the summer. As well as, perhaps, what the Sorting Hat was thinking of, putting Harry Potter's oldest child in a House of people who, for the most part, would give anything to make his life miserable. 

Lily helped herself to some chips, then began to reach for the Shepard's Pie, when another student did the same. She immediately withdrew her arm, shrinking under the glares of the Slytherins. It didn't matter, though. Hunger had disappeared in the wake of her Sorting. All that was left was a sort of numb, vacant, paralysis. Lily's thoughts spun in a rapid cycle. She couldn't be a Slytherin. Not her. Harry Potter's eldest child, the daughter of the person who saved the wizarding world. Not her. Surely there had been a mistake! The hat had been upset by a Confundus charm. This was just a dream. She was not, could not possibly be, a Slytherin.

"Lily?"

The girl jumped at the cool hand that rested on her arm and the quiet voice that manifested near her ear. Lily looked up to see a mildly worried Sanna standing over her. Those Slytherins near her had fallen silent, save for a few muttered jokes that Sanna pointedly ignored.

"Lily, you're not eating, she pointed out quietly. The first year nodded mutely. Sanna frowned. "It's just your Sorting. The hat puts you where you'd be best…."

"I'd be best with _you_," Lily said, her voice laden with unshed tears of disappointment and frustration. Her eyes prickled madly and she dtried to unobtrusively dash away the tears before they could be noticed.

"Crybaby," a heavyset boy smirked. Sanna glared at him ferociously and he backed off. Lily was torn between clinging to Sanna, letting her fix the Sorting, and moving away from the other girl. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to make any friends, even if she was in the Dark House.

"Slytherin isn't a bad House," Sanna said. "It's just…look, I'm sure there're some really lovely kids here this term. Are you all right?"

Lily nodded resolutely. Sanna looked at her for a moment with mild surprise, then seemed to realize something. Looking vaguely amused, she left Lily to face her new House with a swift hug. Gritting her teeth, the first year turned to the girl next to her. "Hi," she said, shakily. "Where're you from?"


End file.
